County budget boosted by property tax revenues

Thanks to the prospect of higher property tax revenues, the Otsego County budget will see a significant increase for 2017 compared with several years in the past.

The general fund would go from $7,880,769 (£6,188,761) in 2016 to $8,064,151 (£6,332,771) in 2017, county administrator, John Burt said.

“We’re expecting property taxes revenues to go up by approximately 2.5 per cent, due in large part to new construction, including the new Wolverine Power Plant”.

Ken Borton, Otsego County Board of Commissioners chair and county Budget and Finance Committee member, echoed Burt with a similar observation about the new budget.

“Obviously in years past, property tax revenues were down,” Borton said. “We are slowly working our way out of this. Building construction is up and the Wolverine Power Plant has really helped in 2017. Everyone is still watching their budgets, but I was happy with how it all worked out.”

The power plant, located in Elmira Township, became operational in July, and, according to Burt, how much revenue the county will see from this project for 2017 is yet to be determined.

“I have Bill Kerr (equalization director) working on it,” Burt said. “It is very tentative though. The cost can go down or up — I’m hoping quite a bit up. The forms that determine the value aren’t filed until February though, so it’s really only a conservative educational guess at this point. “